Researcher

Dr Haider Akmal

My Expertise

Creative and future-focused speculative applications of technology; Speculative Design; Design and Play.

Keywords

speculative design

co-design

philosophy

human computer interaction

Fields of Research (FoR)

Design, Interaction and experience design, Cyberphysical systems and internet of things, Human-computer interaction, Social robotics, Philosophy, Service design, Design management

SEO tags

Expanding Knowledge in Built Environment and Design

Expanding Knowledge in Technology

Biography

Haider Ali Akmal is a speculative design researcher, future-focused service designer, and practicing printmaker at UNSW Art, Design, & Architecture, specialising in playful speculative approaches towards design solutions imagined through innovative and unconventional applications of technology. His research in design discusses the need for playfulness in design practice through post-anthropocentric visions of human computer interaction....view more

Haider Ali Akmal is a speculative design researcher, future-focused service designer, and practicing printmaker at UNSW Art, Design, & Architecture, specialising in playful speculative approaches towards design solutions imagined through innovative and unconventional applications of technology. His research in design discusses the need for playfulness in design practice through post-anthropocentric visions of human computer interaction. Originally from Pakistan he is an alumnus of the National College of Arts, Lahore, as well as of Lancaster University, UK. Affiliated with both the Cowas Jee Print Studio in Pakistan and the Imagination Lab in Lancaster, Haider co-operates the Inkster Printmaking Studio in Lahore. His work has been exhibited internationally with prints in collections in the China Print Museum, Singapore, London, and across Pakistan.

My Grants

National Heritage Lottery Foundation UK funded research for the Remembering Resistance Project, 2019
ESPRC UK Funded PhD Fellowship in Internet of Things Research, 2017

My Qualifications

PhD Design, Lancaster University, Lancaster, United Kingdom
MA Design Management, Lancaster University, Lancaster, United Kingdom
Bachelors of Fine Arts (Printmaking), National College of Arts, Lahore, Pakistan

My Research Activities

Often indulging with current and future pervasive technologies such as the Internet of Things, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence, a large part of Haider's work explores playful approaches towards understanding and solving design problems in a More-than Human Centred view of design and technology. Overlapping with practices of philosophy, ludic design, and speculative design Haider's research interest lies in the use of ambiguity and play within design.

Affiliated with the Creative Robotics Lab and the Interactive Media Lab at UNSW, his research explores post-human perspectives/implications of design and their future applications of technology. As a visual artist his works focus on the relationship one has with their past(s), working primarily in the graphic medium where his visuals act as trinkets of entangled moments gathered for their powers of attraction. In their own way as both a designer and artist his work observes the entanglement of human interaction through lenses of fermented experience.

My Research Supervision

Supervision keywords

speculative design

design and play

ludic design

user experience design

Areas of supervision

I'm currently available for joint supervision in the following areas of expertise:

Speculative Design
More-than Human Design
Ludic Design
Playful design for the Internet of Things
Design & Play
Posthuman Design Perspectives

Note: As per University guidelines any candidates interested in supervision would require both a Primary and Secondary Supervisor. Currently I am unable to be a Primary. Any interested candidates will need to have first secured a Primary Supervisor.